Unclaimed Insurance Policy amount : How to locate, find & claim it?

Unclaimed money is money from lost bank accounts, shares, investments and life insurance policies. Are you aware of the fact that Unclaimed investments to the tune of around Rs 40,000 Crores are lying with financial institutions like Banks, Life insurance companies, Post office, Provident Fund office, Income Tax departments etc.,

Some people, maintain records of their investments and some people just ignore / forget about their investments. Some others, do not even let their family members know about their investments, including details of their life insurance policies.

There are chances that your investments become lost when you move house and forget to update your details with a financial institution or company.

As per the recent estimates, the Unclaimed Deposits lying with Banking institutions are around Rs 6,835 cr as on 31-12-2015. In 2014, this figure was Rs 4,998.

(Latest Update (15-Jan-2018): According to the latest figures released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Rs 8,864.6 crore is lying unclaimed in 2.63 crore accounts with all bank groups as of December ’16. )

The unclaimed insurance amount reported by the life and non-life insurance companies is as follows;

As per the IRDA’s latest report, unclaimed money worth nearly Rs 15,167 crores (as on March 31, 2018) is lying idle with Life Insurance Companies.

Here, unclaimed insurance policy money means, the money which has been remained unclaimed beyond six months from the claim settlement due date. It can be any of the below claims;

Death claim,

Maturity claim,

Survival benefit (Money-back amount),

Premium due for refund,

Premium deposit not adjusted against premium

Indemnity claims etc.

Let’s say, Mr Rajiv takes a life insurance policy and nominates his son (Mr Rahul) as the nominee. He has never shared the information about this policy with Rahul / family members. Rajiv has met his untimely death. After a year, Rahul finds the life insurance policy bond, wants to find this unclaimed insurance policy amount and claim it.

Similarly, there can be different reasons for the unclaimed insurance money lying with Life Insurance (or) Non-life insurance companies.

How to find out about Unclaimed Insurance policy amount online?

IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development of India) has issued clear guidelines to all insurance companies (life & non-life) to provide unclaimed insurance money details on their respective websites.

If the unclaimed insurance policy amount is more than Rs 1,000 then you can identify it online by visiting respective insurance company portal.

You have to provide below details to find out about unclaimed insurance amount;

If the information in any two fields matches with the insurer’s records, the unclaimed amount lying with the company gets displayed. The policy-holder’s name and address will also be displayed.

Likewise, Non-life insurance companies also allow you to know whether any amount is lying unclaimed. Let’s say you would like to identify unclaimed insurance money lying with SBI Non-Life insurance company, below is the online procedure;

You have to provide Policy holder’s name and other details (which are optional) to know about unclaimed amount.

How to claim unclaimed Insurance amount?

If the claim is made by the policy holder himself then the insurer will ask for a cancelled cheque and Policy bond. You have to approach the home branch or zonal office of your life insurance company and claim the unclaimed money.

If it’s a death claim, and a nominee is claiming the amount, a WILLleft by the policyholder will make it very easy for the nominee to claim benefits / amount with an insurer. Kindly note that for a death claim, insurer will take bank details of the nominee.

As per the new nomination rule (2015), the concept of ‘Beneficial Nominee‘ has been introduced. Beneficial nominees are direct dependents of the policy holder i.e., Spouse, children or parents.

As per Insurance Laws (Amendment) Act, 2015 – If an immediate family member such as spouse / parent / child is made as the nominee, then the death benefit will be paid to that person and other legal heirs will not have a claim on the money.

If you (policyholder) nominate your spouse, children or/and parents, they would be Beneficial Nominees. No one else can claim your life insurance policy monies. For example : If you nominate your spouse as beneficial nominee, no one else (even other legal heirs)can have right on the death claim proceeds.

So, the concept of beneficial nominee is like a WILL.

If there is no ‘Will’ and no nomination in the insurance policy, the legal process will have to be followed. In such a scenario, the insurance company discharges the claim amount to the Class I legal heir, that is, to son, daughter, spouse and mother.

To avoid situations like described above, you may consider below points and implement them as part of yourfinancial plan;

Maintain a record of all your investment details. (Consider creating a portfolio on financial portals likewww.moneycontrol.com)

Sreekanth Reddy

Sreekanth is the Man behind ReLakhs.com. He is an Independent Certified Financial Planner (CFP), engaged in blogging & property consultancy for the last 9 years through his firm ReLakhs Financial Services . He is not associated with any Financial product / service provider.
The main aim of his blog is to "help investors take informed financial decisions.""Please note that the views given in this Blog/Comments Section/Forum are clarifications meant for reference and guidance of the readers to explore further on the topics/queries raised and take informed decisions. These should not be construed as investment advice or legal opinion."

Dear Rohit, I would have got this information on net (News portals like ET). We can get this information on respective insurer portals as well. As per IRDA – all the insurers are advised to disclose the amount representing unclaimed sum as a separate line item in Schedule 13 – “Current liabilities” of the Balance Sheet. Further, its age-wise analysis also to be disclosed in the prescribed format.

Or, complaints can be mailed to the IRDAI head office situated in Hyderabad.

According to IRDA, a complaint should state clearly the name and address of the complainant, the name of the branch or office of the insurer against whom the complaint is made, the facts giving rise to the complaint, supported documents if any, the nature and extent of the loss caused to the complainant and the relief sought from the Insurance Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman gives his recommendation within one month if parties agree to a mediation; otherwise, an award is passed within three months from the date of receipt of all requirements from a complainant.

An insurance company has 30 days to comply with the award. However, if the complainant is unhappy with the award he or she can approach the consumer forum. The award is binding on insurance companies, though.

Integrated Grievance Management System (IGMS)

Besides these, IRDA has come up with an Integrated Grievance Management System. Policyholders can use this system to register and track their complaint, both with the insurer and the IRDA.

-Log in to igms.irda.gov.in and create a profile for registering a complaint.

-Fill in all the necessary details related to the grievance.

A complaint registered through IGMS flows to the insurer’s system as well as the IRDA repository.

The complainant would receive a confirmation email after registering the complaint along with IRDA token number which will be used by IRDA and Insurance Company for tracking of the complaint through IGMS.

Once a complaint is registered to the IGMS, the details of the complaint are passed on to respective insurance companies.

If the complainant is not satisfied with the resolution provided by Insurer, the complaint can be escalated for a review by IRDA for a potential violation of Regulations through IGMS.

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